Study: Letting Go of Your Anger is Good for You

When you're mad, stressed, or anxious how do you handle it? Do you let it out or hold it in?

New research suggests if you carry around those negative emotions with you they will take a toll long term on your physical and mental health.

Scientists in Germany found that keeping in fear, anger and anxiety can increase your risk for cardiovascular disease, heart attack, and stroke. An analysis of 22-studies covering more than six-thousand patients revealed that repressors, or people who bottle up their emotions, have a higher heart rate and pulse ratio than non-repressors.

According to the study's author:

Repressors also show more signs of stress than non-repressors. This may happen because chronically repressing negative thoughts makes the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, the part of the brain that controls your reactions to stress, become hyperactive.

I'm not sure what all of that means, but I do get the concept: don't bottle up your feelings or they will come back to haunt you down the road.